Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 27, 1991                   TAG: 9103270413
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

UVA

The 172-year-old institution's reputation for academic excellence, and its more recent reputation for athletic excellence, won't be permanently sullied by the drug raid on three frat houses and the arrest of 12 of some 18,000 students. (Probably its reputation as a party school won't be harmed much either.)

But the raid and unprecedented confiscation of the three houses by federal authorities should - as the action was intended - send a strong message that illegal drug trafficking won't be tolerated on prestigious college campuses.

If the country's effort to rid itself of the scourge of drugs is to be effective, it must be taken seriously by one and all. That means overcoming a continuing credibility problem. Too often, the public sees drug enforcement bearing down on center-city crack houses while it winks at recreational sales and use among the middle- and upper-class. That must change.

And so an example was made of UVa. University officials and students say they get the message, loud and clear. But some bitterly complain that Mr. Jefferson's university was unfairly "targeted" by federal drug authorities because they needed to hit an elite campus for the publicity value to the Bush administration's war on drugs.

Authorities deny it. Even so, the haul from the fraternity-row raid - relatively small amounts of marijuana, hallucinogenic mushrooms and LSD, plus some drug paraphernalia - gives pause. No cocaine and no heroin were found, and the evidence hardly suggests that the three frat houses were major drug bazaars in the Charlottesville community.

It was "a Mickey Mouse bust," say some students. Handbills have circulated on the campus, reading, "Hey, DEA, go arrest real criminals - thieves, rapists, politicians."

Law-enforcement officials do not contend the drug problem at UVa is more serious than at many other schools. But in their year-long investigation they found ongoing drug activity, "open and notorious."

It didn't stop even after police sent a letter to the fraternities and sororities telling them they were being watched and that action, including the seizure of the frat houses, would follow if the drug activity didn't cease.

It had become "a situation we could no longer be turning our back on or be willfully blind to," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Kenneth Sorenson.

The confiscation of the houses under federal law dealing with forfeiture of drug assets troubles many. One of the involved fraternities - Tau Kappa Epsilon - risks losing a house valued at about $250,000 because just one of its 18 residents was charged with selling just one hit of LSD.

Granted, justice is always a little unfair to those being made an example of. There's little question that if similar enforcement operations were mounted at other universities, the results would be similar.

Granted, too, that education and counseling are preferable to punishment (and treatment better than incarceration) as weapons against drug abuse. Sledgehammers shouldn't be necessary to drive home the message that no place, including fraternity houses, can be permitted to serve as sanctuaries for illegal drug activity.

But, apparently, sledgehammers sometimes are necessary. From here on at least, students at UVa and elsewhere can't say they lacked fair warning.